Things are heating up as our final pre-competition comes to an end! The FIRST® Robotics Competition (FRC) is one of the biggest regional robotics competitions in America, with over fifty competitors. Last year, we achieved the Rookie All-Star Award, which celebrates teams exemplifying a strong partnership effort. We also won the Wildcard Invitation to the FIRST® Robotics Competition Championships in Texas–which we were fortunate to be invited to.

This year, the theme of the game is more applicable to real-life environmental problems. The goal of the game is to design a robot that can score points by ‘harvesting algae’ and ‘seeding corals’ in a set amount of time. Simply put, our robot’s movements will have to be a lot more precise compared to last year.

We have had a busy few weeks since the game was released in January, and are racing against time in order to complete our preparations. Soon enough, our robot will have to be disassembled and packed into suitcases for our fourteen-hour flight. We are toughening up to the more complicated challenge. We are no longer ‘rookies’ and of course the expectations from us are higher.

Our robot is currently in the process of refinement, as the mechanical and coding teams are working hard  to iron out technical issues before competing. This year, we aimed higher than ever before and took some big risks. We attempted to build an advanced drivetrain, called the ‘Swerve’ drive, which enables movement in all directions and adopts vision sensors so that our robot can recognize targets.

The coding team faced challenges coding the Swerve, but they have made huge advancements, and as you’re reading this, they are minutes away from finalising the code. The Swerve drive can turn 360 while moving in a line, which will help us align with our targets much faster.

We still have to make last-minute adjustments to the arm, mount the elevator and intake to swerve, measure our bumpers, and build a backup swerve drive. The arm is the part of our robot which enables us to score points in the form of a PVC pipe and it can be moved up and down by our elevator. The intake is the ‘scooper’ of our robot, which allows us to pick up a ball and score it. The game will be intense, with 50kg robots ramming into each other, so we must ensure that our bumpers are properly mounted.

Each day brings progress and new challenges! Right now we face an unsolved bug in the code, unexpected hitches, and running out of time. These challenges put us under pressure – but that pressure pushes us to grow. Elsa teamwork and dedication, together with passion will hopefully help us to perform at that higher level. 

We are super excited and can’t wait to make the most of this opportunity.